"And we read from pleasant bibles, that are bound in blood and skin, that the wilderness is gathering all her children back again."

- Leonard Cohen-

This is the beginning of an attempt to do part of a desert town that is fighting a continual battle to prevent the incursion of the desert.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

Steel General

10-08-2008, 07:47 PM

Great start... I've been trying to find a good way to add encroaching sand dunes to my map as well. No satisfactory results as of yet.

xv43

10-08-2008, 07:48 PM

I love it... how do you get the sand over the stone tile look?

jfrazierjr

10-08-2008, 09:25 PM

I love it... how do you get the sand over the stone tile look?

I would "guess" he created a layer with the sand texture on it, set the opacity down to 70% or so and added a layer mask and then brushed out the layermask to "show" the sand through image. At least, thats how I would have done it in GIMP.

jfrazierjr

10-08-2008, 09:26 PM

Oh yea... Great map. Yet again, Torq is in the lead for getting my vote. You make some great maps man!

xv43

10-08-2008, 11:01 PM

I would "guess" he created a layer with the sand texture on it, set the opacity down to 70% or so and added a layer mask and then brushed out the layermask to "show" the sand through image. At least, thats how I would have done it in GIMP.Thanks, I'm still feeling my way through how to do things with gimp, I'm only barely starting to get layer masks ;)

Torq

10-09-2008, 05:56 AM

Yes the sand is just layered over with about 70% opacity. Filled in the whole pic with sand then just brushed out the bits I didn't want using a more or less circular grunge brush.

Thanks for the compliments.

Here is the latest version with some sand added to the higher parts and a few other extras.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

Steel General

10-09-2008, 07:47 AM

I'm going to have to give that method a try and see what happens.

xv43

10-09-2008, 09:34 AM

I think I like it better with some sand on top of the buildings, it makes it look like a sandstorm has recently passed through.

jfrazierjr

10-09-2008, 09:43 AM

Thanks, I'm still feeling my way through how to do things with gimp, I'm only barely starting to get layer masks ;)

Learn masks and learn them well... they will drastically improve your control and flexability. For a test, do this:

new image
Fill with a texture
New layer filled with another texture
Add a layer mask 100 black so your original texture shows through.
With the layer mask selected (click the mask thumbnail), use a paint brush set to pure white and about 40% opacity, paint the mask white which will allow stuff to show through.

This is an excellent technique for blending two or more colors/textures together that is totally non destructive. If you show to much of the top texture or color, just change the FG color to white and erase part of the mask. For the above test, I would suggest using Rock_Blueish_Blu_kp.bmp as the base background texture and one of the grass textures as the top layer. This will allow you to produce an "overgrown" city with some base streets and your vegitation on top.

The other GREAT thing about doing it this way is that you can change the textures used in 2 seconds by draging a new texture onto the correct layer and still have the same basic shape preserved 100% because the mask it doing all the heavy lifting instead of your hand brush strokes.

Attached are some samples using the same background and different top layers. It took about 2 seconds to change each top layer texture and yet the location of the top layer stays constant in each since the mask is doing all the work. This is a great way to blend colors or textures and still be flexible to change out the color/texture and maintian the same shape without any tweaking to get the shape back. I originally figured this out from something in RobA's tutorial where he did it months ago, but forgot about it until I watched Butch's (zombienirvana) tutorials on utube last night.

Honestly, I liked the first one the most...the clean one...I was astounded. The second doesn't look bad by any means it's just me. Nice work my man.

loogie

10-10-2008, 08:36 PM

i agree, the second drives my eyes crazy... i don't like it as much as the first... it'd be harder to do, but look better if you made the sand gather in places against the prevailing winds, instead of a seemingly randomish addition...

as for it driving my eyes crazy... i dunno what to do there.. and i dunno if its the same for everyone..

mmmmmpig

10-13-2008, 11:15 PM

I cannot believe that I haven't commented on this one yet... I really like the idea behind what you have here. I would love to see you push it a bit more and see what happened when the dunes encroach even more... maybe leaving only the rooflines of the buildings on the top right exposed.

This is top notch stuff again.

Torq

10-16-2008, 05:41 PM

I dont seem to be able to put together a challenge entry without bats. Bats are cool, bats are great, Bats, Bats, Bats.

Added a few other things too.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

Lord

10-16-2008, 08:52 PM

I like the sandy version better... i wouldn't mind seeing more sand too... maybe some building are almost totally buried.

The birds are a nice touch and well done, but birds, in the desert? It doesn't quite compute. Unless they are buzzards or something.

waldronate

10-16-2008, 09:22 PM

The round thing on the right is a belfry, right?

mmmmmpig

10-16-2008, 11:31 PM

ooooh Bats bats bats!!!!

Torq

10-17-2008, 02:09 AM

The round thing on the right is a belfry, right?

Absolutely right. The idea was that the bell has just tolled to announce the end of most recent sandstorm. Weather scouts have been out on foot to check before ringing the bell. Hence the footprints in the sand. The sound shakes loose the Dune Bats that shelter there.

Thus, I no longer have bats in my belfry.

Torq

mmmmmpig

10-17-2008, 02:10 PM

That was a long set up to get to a rather dubious punchline. Although I am a fan of bad humor

PokealypseNow

10-17-2008, 03:35 PM

Layer masks for the win, every single time!

Here is the latest version with some sand added to the higher parts and a few other extras.

I like it! However, here's a suggestion. If the wind keeps blowing predominantly in one direction, the sand would begin to pile up accordingly against walls, rocky outcroppings, etc. That might be interesting to see on the map.

dragonwolf

10-19-2008, 06:35 PM

Awesome. The added bats add a quite different feel to the map than without them.

Torq

10-20-2008, 08:30 AM

What about a night scene? Its definately more in keeping with the rooftop assassin battle that I have in mind for this map.

It was fine on my laptop but on my office machine it comes out way too dark. I'll try to improve it.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

Torq

10-20-2008, 08:36 AM

Hopefully lighter.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

mmmmmpig

10-20-2008, 10:25 AM

I think the night scene gets a bit too muddy looking for my tastes. You lose a bunch of the detail. It might be interesting to see the night scene with some illumination from windows and maybe a cloudless night/full moon combo. At the moment, it seems a bit flat as a night piece.

Torq

10-20-2008, 10:35 AM

Yes, I think you're right Pig. But you've got me thinking about light spilling out from windows. I'm going to give that a bash.

Torq

mmmmmpig

10-20-2008, 10:52 AM

I think brightening (is that a word?) up the highlighted areas with moon light can help as well.

Aera Lure

10-20-2008, 10:56 AM

Moonlight, cool and silvery over the whole map with highlights and shadows, contrasted with some warmer yellowish tones spilling out from window light would help the night scene considerably. Could look amazing. Worth experimenting. Though it is a bit too dark, I like the previous night scene's color tone. The one you lightened in my opinion is too desaturated and looks washed out. Maybe a combination of careful color adjustment and lighting effects will give you what you're looking for? Looking forward to seeing the results.

jezelf

10-20-2008, 01:04 PM

love the bats. good entry!

Edgewalker

10-20-2008, 01:41 PM

Awesome map. The bats are cool. What about a daytime version with the addition of an ominous shadow of some great flying beast overhead? Or maybe that would be too difficult to achieve with all the buildings around, given different heights you'd have to deal with... I don't really know I'm new to all this. Great effort though.

Torq

10-20-2008, 03:47 PM

After MMMMMMpig's suggestion I have tried to take this in another direction by adding some lights.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

Steel General

10-20-2008, 05:01 PM

That's much better than the first two versions.

Very cool...

mmmmmpig

10-20-2008, 06:10 PM

I agree, but i would tone back the purpleness of the color and add light blue splashes of moonlit highlights.

then... c'est fini

Lord

10-20-2008, 10:29 PM

I love the window light... very nice. I am not too sure the bats would reflect light though. seems a bit odd. The bats also seem rather static to me. perhaps there is a way to show movement.

dragonwolf

10-21-2008, 02:51 AM

That night scene is awesome. I do agree it's a tad too purple in color though.

Aera Lure

10-21-2008, 10:21 AM

Yeah, a little too purple and saturated and the window lights could fade out a bit more in a gradient from the light sources because they look too solid. You could try desaturating the purple a bit, just dont desaturate and lighten too much at the same time or it gets washed out like your second one was. Could try a touch of contrast whenever desaturating and/or lightening, but its not something I can describe as well as simply looking at it and deciding it looks about right.

Definitely an improvement over the other two though in my opinion. Very cool.

Torq

10-21-2008, 04:59 PM

I've taken down the red in the colour of night giving it more of a blue and less of a purple look. Added areas of moonlight and increase the diffusion of light spilling through windows and doors, as per your suggestions. Thanks all for the advice.